Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative
A partnership with The Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative supports community-led projects that grow food justice.
About the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative
Philadelphia has tremendous food assets and opportunities for individual and collective action. We know that food justice is health justice.
The Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (PFJI) empowers communities to exercise their right to grow, sell and eat healthy food. PFJI is a partnership of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (CDIP) and Reinvestment Fund.
Historically, the food system has displaced, enslaved, and undervalued the labor, land rights, and self-determination of Black and Brown individuals, women, immigrants, and indigenous people. In Philadelphia today, low income communities and communities of color still have fewer fresh food choices.
PFJI supports community-driven solutions in areas where access to healthier food is needed the most. PFJI is informed by health justice, the collective movement to heal society and remove barriers that prevent individual and community well-being.
Philadelphia has tremendous food assets and opportunities for individual and collective action. PFJI strengthens these assets by providing funding for innovative, community-led projects that work to further food justice. PFJI prioritizes projects led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, immigrants and people living with disabilities, and those with lived experience with health injustice. PFJI supports projects that offer fair compensation to staff and partners.
Partners
Available Funding
Approximately $550,000 is currently available for grants. With this current funding amount, grants will have a maximum award of $50,000. There is no minimum grant award.
Who Can Apply
This open call for ideas is for individuals, businesses, or organizations doing community-led work that contributes to an equitable and sustainable local food system in Philadelphia.
Applicants must be located in the City of Philadelphia and can be nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses, cooperatives or collectives working on food justice are eligible to apply. Retail and non-retail food businesses are eligible. Applicants must make a commitment that their businesses and other spaces will be tobacco-free.
How to Apply
The Request for Applications (RFA) outlines program eligibility, lead applicant requirements, and the application questions to be answered in order to apply for potential funding.
Descargar la solicitud de propuestas
Application submissions will be accepted electronically through Reinvestment Fund’s online grants management platform, SmartSimple. Applications in additional languages are available upon request. If you do not already have a SmartSimple account, you must create one at:
https://reinvestmentfund.smartsimple.com/
The application portal is open.
Applicants are encouraged to thoroughly review the RFA before starting an application in SmartSimple. To avoid technical issues, we encourage you to submit your application in advance of application deadlines.
APPLY NOWImportant Dates
Informational Webinar: Friday, November 15, 2024, at 1:00 pm Eastern Time
Application Submission Deadline: by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, December 16, 2024
Award Selections: No earlier than the week of January 20, 2024
Our Impact
Since its launch in 2019, the initiative has awarded nearly $2 million in grants to advance community-driven solutions to historic food injustice. To date, 27 organizations have been awarded PFJI grants. Twenty-five are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) owned or led and 18 are owned or led by women. Grant awards have ranged from $4,000 to $100,000.
To learn more about PFJI prior grant recipients, view the following reports:
Resources
2024 PFJI Informational Session Recording
2024 PFJI Informational Session Slides
About Health Justice: Food Fit Philly
Continue to check back for resource updates.
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Questions? Contact us.
You can email phillyfoodjustice@reinvestment.com for any inquiries.